Osun State Government on Wednesday, said it has re-presented a former finance commissioner, Adewale Bolorunduro, as Non-Executive Director of Living Trust Mortgage Bank, to the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The government subsequently faulted the alleged use of a visitation panel report on the dispute between the bank and the state government as a basis for the rejection of its nominee.
The state governor, Ademola Adeleke, had nominated Bolorunduro as chairman of Living Trust Mortgage Bank, where it currently has the largest deposit in April 2024.
But Bolorunduro’s nomination was rejected by the apex bank recently, citing a report of a visitation panel that investigated disputes between the government and Living Trust management.
However, while stating Osun’s position in a statement obtained in Osogbo, spokesperson for the governor, Olawale Rasheed, recalled “official letters of the government dated 8th and 19th of May 2023 to show that the disputes had been there two (2) years ago, hinting that the contents of the letters will be made public if the current situation is not redressed.”
The statement partly read further, “On the visitation of CBN officials in May 2024, which was after the CitiTrust obtained court restraint from allowing the board from meeting to recover unauthorised funds disbursed to customers, the state cited its official letter dated 10th June, 2024 to state its own side of the story.”
The government noted that the CBN did not write to report it was not satisfied with Osun since then and expressed concern “that the apex bank decided to reject the state’s nominee who has not been faulted based on integrity, qualification and credit rating, which they were asking him to forward information, until 18th March 2025.
“The state wants to state that the previous disputes have been resolved amicably out of court, with Dr Adewale Bolorunduro playing a role in the dispute resolutions and getting equitable and fair terms for Osun State.
“The state justified its re-submission of the nomination of Dr Adewale Bolorunduro for consideration, following the inalienable right of the state and its local governments to nominate directors to represent their interests on the board of the Bank.
“By this, the state has rejected the March 21st, 2025 verdict of the CBN officials from Other Financial Institutions Supervision (OFIs) Department and asking CBN Governor to look into its various concerns, which include the predetermined and prejudicial rejection of Dr Bolorunduro, who has been on board since 19th April, 2024. Since EFCC has declared CitiTrust as a Ponzi scheme, the Osun State Government is of the opinion that the CitiTrust-led management of the Living Trust bank is the one causing the problem.
The government reminded the apex bank that it remains the largest depositor of the Living Trust Mortgage Bank, with running cost accounts of the Ministry, Department and Agencies of the government in the bank.
Post Views: 5
Follow The Eagle Online Channel on WhatsApp
